29 November 2014

BREAKING
NEWS
My Strengths
Honesty
This week I have said what I have
thought about the script and
about my euthanasia group and I
feel it had paid o because things
have been altered and changed. I
feel as an actor you need to be
honest with yourself and other
people so you move on.

24/11/14
Newspaper Tech:
I only teched the end section to our piece because the others
had already been plotted, I thought it went alright. The lights
were basic and there wasn't music technically we could do
with the show but I thought that we used the lights to its
most aectiveness for the piece.

Company Member

I felt that this week with all

this dancing the girls like to do,
even though I'm not a dancer
and prefer scenes, I joined in
and took part with optimism
and put my creative ideas
inside it as well. I weren't
listened to all the time because
they like it their way but I feel
with all this fighting going on I
have been on the fence.

Sight Reading
I hate sight reding but this week I
volunteered myself to read
Granny in a new scene, my voice
went wrong and people laughed
which made me go into reading it
normally with no character but I
put myself out there when I hate
doing it, so I'm proud of myself
for that.

Choreograph Dance:
Harriet, Daniella and Alex decided they wanted to start
choreographing a damp to put into the schools project so we
all joined in, not that they said lets all do this they just took it
upon themselves. I put some create input in but it's getting
harder and harder to work with Lewis, he was unfocused and
then he decides when he wants
to put eort in he will and
then give a note to change the
piece but we are trying to
move on. He takes 25 minutes
to explain an idea and then he
wonders why we try to spread
him up the. He will say okay I
won't bother but we say carry
on because we are supportive
and want to listen but a
disagreement kicks o and
then he explains all over again
anyway wasting time. After this we carried on with the
routine and I said during the instrumental we should have a

29 November 2014

My Weaknesses

Communicating
The beginning of this week
Erol and I had a tiff that we
worked out through
Carleigh and now we work
a lot better because we
communicate more and I
think that the whole
company need to take a
leave out of our book. I
don't think that Erol or I
handled the situation
maturely at first which was a
weakness.

Diving In
During the week we got
new script and I didn't
exactly jump at the idea of
going for characters
because I feel like I'm
loosing how to act! I'm not
feeling confident if what u
do anymore and feel I'm
getting worse so I need to
think more optimistically.

Attitude
I feel my attitude this week
in more ways than one
needs looking at, I don't
like Christmas shows or
children's theatre but I
need to find motivation for
it somewhere.

physical scene like action taking place where we build a sleigh

and its improvised. We came to an end of the song and I felt
all the boys apart from Erol weren't cooperating which was
frustrating but I said lets just get on with it and they will be
the ones to looks stupid when they ask us questions and we
don't answer a second before Carleigh is coming to see it.

25/11/14
Schools Project Scene:
We played games in the morning but when we played sardines
when it came to an end Sam was like can we do one more me
and Julia will go and hide, Harriet said yes okay then go, Sam
and I hide and no one came to find us. I wanted to teach
them a lesson that it was not very nice and we should be a
company don't agree on something then change it completely.
I thought when Carleigh goes down and asks where Sam and
Julia are and they say oh hiding, she will say go and find them
then, or why are you playing and have left them? However
Amber said she felt mean just leaving us, someone should
have at least found us and said okay we have changed the
game come back now, NOT LEFT US! On our way back we
saw Levi and Charley hanging around in the foyer and they
said they are making up another dance and haven't asked us to
be in it so we left. That's not a company, the girls should invite
everyone in on there dance and not seclude everyone else,
Harriet started having a go at Sam as he said someone should
have gone to get us and she said we we working, not a clear
argument. Carleigh then had a chat with us about being a
company and she got quite heated about it and to be honest
after my argument and talk with Carleigh about Erol which is
resolved now I think she thought two in one day; if she was in
the company she would understand why there is so much of
that. The banter the boys have like Lewis he will bring us past
arguments but goes over the line and repeats them so much
and now is becoming, annoying, mean and arrogant.
Carleigh gave us a scene to create of characters at a ball and
its family friendly piece that includes a point where a baddie
comes in and has a change of heart at the end. I thought
devising it was a lot easier than the dance, however it still was
very hard with the boys being unfocused we put creative ideas
in which Lewis when he felt like it wanted to help and give
notes on the piece. We got through it and it was some fun
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29 November 2014

devising and we came to a great conclusion and had some comical moments like 'a ball' in it which
really worked. Carleigh was happy with what we created and I was too in the end but there was more
we could have done to it.

New Scene:
Carleigh gave us our first scene for the schools project which was
exciting, I could see Robbins influence in the writing, I thought
the scene went on for a long time when I think it seemed it
dragged but it might be dierent when it's alive and on its feet. I
got some of the comedy more when it was read aloud and I
thought Erol and Charley worked well voice wise as the double
act and Sam is always great at reading but Harriet was happy and
not sarcastic which is how I read it. I'm excited to put It on its
feet now.

Dress Run Euthanasia:

This was the first time seeing the newspaper project show and its was great, a brilliant first show I'd
be happy to be an actor inside it and am privileged i got the opportunity to direct on it. Saying this I

Julia's Notes:
Make

sure you know your focus points, if your in freeze frame or

slow motion. No wandering eyes
Be in the moment

Commit to every action

REACT inside scenes

Game show was passive needs more life.

Nice energy in commercial one euthanasia

Ending didn't work. Too dynamic needs a bigger shift

Laughter everyone should commit to it, company members as well!!!

Keep transitions going until the next thing starts, heard it die out then chairs clanging.

Dance needs character noise, grumbles, laughter too passive and not entertaining or exciting.

Keep the pace and drive the show some moments were slow and dragged.

Keep tension, something at stake.

Nice raw energy about the piece, comical moments work.

Clearer when your in the microphone.

People with accents decide if your English or American not

both unless it's a definitive dierence.

29 November 2014

loved the show but thought my piece got merged and lost inside
because it was the same feel as the show where as the others are all
distinctly dierent. The stylistic slow motion and the dance are not
working, the game show was passive and considering there was the
whole company the reactions were poor; don't get me started on the
music!!! I felt disappointed in myself because I felt if I director more
and put my stamp on it and didn't let the actors run loose with creating
it would be better, there are things that are unpolished fine but I was
expecting it to be better. I feel the episodic feel did work for our piece
but I think if it was one piece it wouldn't have been so lost. There were
a few notes but the piece overall made me happy and feel good, they
are a strong company, few technical issues but I felt proud.

26/11/14
Monologue Innes:
We started with singing with Innes doing an ensemble number and
messing around with some harmonies and changing it up, I tried to
have fun with it but I felt the boys were mucking around a little. I
thought it was fun but got boring so I wish we changed it up more or
went away and devised ourselves instead of a singing lesson. We had 15
minute slots to talk about monologues I got some advice and notes
from Innes but I want to do something physically, it was good advice
but I feel it's moving slow.

Show Newspaper Project:

This show was the best one I've seen, the game show was better but
the music still annoys me. The ending I understand why it doesn't
work, the laughter doesn't fill the room, the music cue is late, I did say
add character noises but mainly it's the lighting show snap when they
laugh but it's still in the other worldly realm. I understand tis technical
but I feel more proud I get the piece blends in and the other groups
stand out but my group as a whole I'm proud of them. The second
years said euthanasia out of the four was the worse because it was lost
they didn't even know it was a group, I understand where they are
coming from and agree so I wish I did more if I had time but the topic
was quite a hard one which we didn't want to make serious.

Company Strengths

Diving in
This week we got five scenes of our
Christmas show and as a company
we dived right in and have explored
characters and relationships with
each actor.

Friendly
Competitiveness
At the end of this week we
played a few games that got
us energised and some
games involved competition
which I feel was good for
our company.

Directing
This week the newspaper
project went out and I feel
proud of my actors and also
proud of what each
company member has
achieved with their group
and considering some
actors didn't want to do this
and hated the process the
end product suggests
dierent.

27/11/14
Walk Down:
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29 November 2014

Company Weaknesses

Company Site
No one has been on the
company site this week and
there has been little action,
yes we are all busy but I put
up my video for directing
and no one has even
glanced that it yet.

Energised
I find in the mornings its hard to
energise ourselves because we
play the same games and noting
gets our blood boiling and at the
end of the week it did so we
need to do more of that.

Tension
Attitude and fight after
argument after comment!! It
keeps going on it circles and
everyone is to blame for the
attitude brought in the space,
more so Lewis and the boys are
bad but the girls are no better.
Amber, Connor and myself are
the fence people we don't tend
to get involved for take sides and
I feel everyone is just being child
ish and get over themselves, we
are a company for Christ sake!

Carleigh asks us to look over scenes we were given and also

choreograph a walk down in our song, so instead of building the sleigh
in the instrumental we are doing the character walk downs. I helped
out but Harriet and Alex like doing this the most so I just sat back
whilst they took control because they don't ask for other people's
opinions Harriet just likes doing it by herself. I put in ideas for some
of the walk downs. We performed it all together but it looked quite
chaotic being an odd number in the company.

28/11/14
New scenes:
Our script is complete up until scene 5, I've now been introduced to
all of the characters and am starting to make connections and
character relationships of my own. I really like the characters gramps
and granny because old people in general are comical I think and this
relationship is sweet but also stereotypical of old people but in a nice
light, I like the character little Al but I can see him being played quite
natural as well as Jane Poppins I can see she is natural. I can see:
Erol as Arthur
Levi as Gramps
Alex as Holly
Harriet as Nicky
Daniella as Jane Poppins
Sam as Grumpty
Charley as Numpty
Lewis as Stumpty
I can see what Amber, Connor or myself are going to play but I feel
these characters have been written in a way which sounds like the
people we are and Daniella always says palava which is in the script for
Jane so I seems obvious but I could be proven wrong. Personally I
don't like playing goodies because they are so innocent and nice and I
hate that but at the same time in this script the baddies aren't bad.
The most evil baddie is Ruth and she's just a bitch, I want there to be
a baddie like in the panto's where the lights go shum a Dom a Dom
over them and everyone knows they are a baddie; the eggs are comical
and Grumpty just sounds grumpy the only bad thing is wanting to
take over Christmas and not even all the baddies want to do that! I
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29 November 2014

feel it is heavy top with goodies. We read through a few scenes and I liked being granny because I
think it would be a challenge for me to play someone a completely dierent age range to myself and
would challenge my voice. I'd like to be in a trio or duo with the boys because I think they can bring
the same amount of comedy I can and I would bounce well o them in the character relationship
sense.

Games:
We played a few games after lunch which really got my pumped and energised, which I feel we should
try to achieve more so in the mornings. We did dodgeball and volleyball and I was on the winning
team each time, just saying. I felt it was competitive but also fun and I always liked sport and It was
just nice to bond more as a company and I think we needed that.

Improvisation:
We did an improvisation in characters which was great and most of the company wanted to be goodies
which I found there wasn't many baddies to play. I was Ruth with Amber which was fun and we took
the improvisation outside and I found this great but it was hard for the baddies because there were so
many goodies against us and Sam was Numpty but his more good than bad anyway! It was a good
improvisation but I feel like I don't know enough about these characters yet and I'm in the stages of
getting to know them and i want the chance to have a play at all the characters before I choose who I
want to be for definite because at the moment I don't have a preference.

29 November 2014

Action Plan:
- smile more
Talk to each other more
dive in and don't think about it
- Be present on company
site
- Do more fun games in the
morning